Articles

2012

Corporate investors are treating post-earthquake Haiti like a Monopoly game, played with US taxpayer dollars. The International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), whose members are primarily PMSCs, hosted a “Haiti Summit” in Florida for corporations to discuss post-earthquake contracting opportunities. Contractors include some of the same companies that profited from war in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as CH2M Hill and KBR Global Service. While the US government funds much of these investments (thanks to corporate lobbyists), there is little transparency to where the money goes once it enters corporate pockets. Haitians must suffer the long-term outcomes of what unaccountable foreign corporations build, destroy, or steal in their neighborhoods. (The WIP)

2010

The US State and Defense Departments have spent billions of dollars to date on private contractors hired to perform tasks like spraying drug crops, assisting the military and providing intelligence in connection with the "war on drugs" in Latin America. Last month, US Senator Claire McCaskill demanded an accurate account of this spending. While her request was largely grounded in a desire for greater financial oversight, it brings to light the issue of oversight of the controversial private contractor industry. The UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries has been pushing for an international convention to "close the legal gap for private military and security contractors" and create a mechanism for accountability. (Upsidedownworld)

The International Peace Operations Association, an umbrella organization for private military and logistic corporations, is co-hosting a "Haiti Summit" in March to bring together "leading officials" with contractors and investors for "private consultations." The potential privatization of the rebuilding of Haiti is cause for concern as corporations traditionally benefit themselves at the expense of citizens and private military contractors are not subject to any external accountability such as the United Nations or The Hague. (IPS)

2005

The US has begun recruiting contractors for Latin American countries to carry out security tasks in its war zones in an effort to minimize US causalities and prevent domestic opposition to the US’s many military interventions abroad. Though the US argues that economically this arrangement benefits both the US and the Latin American contractors, it is morally and politically unacceptable to pay foreigners to “take risks for us” in order to avoid paying the “political cost” of waging otherwise unpopular wars.

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